SCS 200 week 4

docx

School

Southern New Hampshire University *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

200

Subject

Anthropology

Date

Dec 6, 2023

Type

docx

Pages

Uploaded by MajorSnowHedgehog43

Changing our habits to help change our future “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” Is a Native American proverb that I couldn’t agree with more. Especially now more then ever. Since the Industrial revolutionary era the world has been quickly changing and the human race is struggling to comprehend the dire situation, we have put ourselves in. The more humans develop, produce, change, and destruction we cause in the world the worse the situation gets. Climate change is a very real, and a very serious threat that we need to take more serious. We can't argue race, color, nationality, creed, opinions, ideas, thoughts, who’s right or wrong if the world simply doesn’t exist. One of the biggest misconceptions of Climate change is the that it is caused by the sun. People state the sun is increasing in output but in all reality, it is decreasing in heat output. NASA has concluded that the sun’s output is actually at its lowest since 1750. That means we should be headed into colder weather, but because of CO2, water vapors and the degradation of the environment we are headed into record setting heat waves. Yet another misconception is that Carbon Dioxide is a very small percentage of the gases in the atmosphere so they can’t make a difference. On one side that is right, CO2 is less than ten percent of the gases, but when it is paired up with water vapors, they make a huge difference. “ The biggest impact comes from the most abundant greenhouse gas, water vapor, which condenses out due to the fact that colder air holds less water vapor; this is what tanks the greenhouse effect” Berardelli affirms why CO2 and water vapors make a powerful duet. Berardelli continues to explain how impactful the two chemicals have been, ‘For the vast majority of the past million years, CO2 levels have been

below 280 parts per million. Since the industrial revolution of the 1800s, levels have jumped to 415 parts per million — an astounding 48% increase in 150 years.” How can we overcome these mindsets and show that everything each person does has an affect on every other person around the world? First, we need to identify the habits that are damaging, and really see what we are getting out of those habits in return. From there we need to actively chose how we want to change it. When trying to lose weight people often replace eating unhealthy snacks with eating fruits and vegetable. It’s the same technique we will need to apply with climate change. Humans are habitual creatures through years of practice we develop those habits that could last a lifetime. For the first 13+ years of a human’s life, we watch and observe our parents and learn their habits. It takes only 3 years to learn a new habit, but how many of those early learned habits do we chose to change? How many habits have we learned that are damaging to the earth? The sheer amount of the habit’s humans have that are damaging to the earth is staggering. I have yet to find a study that mentions all of them in one place. They range from driving, consumption, grocery shopping, and even include wasting the food that is made in your household. One of these harmful habits is the use of paper, one I have personally worked to change this in an old workplace. During my daily work I had to print out papers for documentation purposes and there were always several “extra” pages that would print out. I had inquired and asked several times about altering the program so that those pages simply did not print out. After years of not hearing a response, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I saved every single paper that was “printed” automatically that we did not use in my office for a whole month. I knew that the big wigs within the company were coming down to talk about differences we would like to see and any issues we have ran into with the programing as it was a quarterly thing they did. After a

solid month of not missing any days of wasted paper collection I had a trach bag full that weighted over 30 pounds. I made sure to show it to them when they came to me asking for improvements. I also explained that it was a big waste of money on their part and how a few hours or work for their programmer could help save them hundreds of dollars in wasted ink and paper. To my delight they agreed to get the programmer on that issue right away. By making small changes and suggestions like this we can help reduce the affects we have on the earth. This is an issue that will take everyone to help correct. At one point in our timeline, humans lived with the earth and used only what was required. As our species has grown and evolved, we have invented new technologies to help ourselves live easier lives. But has each new advancement come at a cost? If so, what is that cost? Since 1880, roughly the beginning of the Industrial revolutionary era, humans have been rapidly changing the world around us. We have increased our land usage, increased our population, decreased forests, we have made living a life of luxury something of ease without knowing, or paying heed to the consequences of our actions. Those actions are now robbing our species of our future. Through development we have altered the earth and by doing so we have allowed more C02 and water vapors to remain in the atmosphere raising the temperature around us. This is evident in our everyday lives if you know what to pay attention to. I have felt the temperature increase and have noticed how each summer seems to get longer, and hotter. A few weeks ago, the temperature was an astonishing 30 degrees higher than last year. “ More extreme variations in weather are also a threat to society.” [CITATION EPA21 \l 1033 ] the EPA authors continues to state that, “More frequent and intense extreme heat events can increase illnesses and deaths, especially among vulnerable populations, and damage some crops. While increased precipitation can replenish water supplies and support

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help

agriculture, intense storms can damage property, cause loss of life and population displacement, and temporarily disrupt essential services such as transportation, telecommunications, energy, and water supplies.” Over the last few years, we have been seeing harsher summers, more debilitating storms, and monumental catastrophic events taking place all over the world. Here are a few of the extreme weather conditions that are becoming more often. There was a winter blizzard storm that triggered major flooding, including a dam breaking. A mind blowing 9 months later, some areas had just begun to return to normal water levels. In just three days there was 349 tornados that tore across lands, a mind blowing 207 tornados are estimated to have touched down just on April 27 th . An EF5 tornado ripped through countless homes and caused mass amounts of devastation and yet another tornado a mere eleven days later hit within a 38- mile radius of each other. The second tornado was the widest ever recorded in the USA at an astonishing 2.6 miles wide. We also seen 1 million acres burnt within a four-year period. Let alone countless category 4 hurricanes that murdered several coastal cities. These disasters are just ones within the United states in the last 22 years. As each year passes, they seem to grow in intensity. “Efforts to examine and respond to the adverse impacts of human practice on nature and, conversely, of environmental degradation on humanity, has to be a multi-disciplinary one that entails collaboration between natural scientists and social scientists, including anthropologists, archaeologists, sociologists, political scientists, economists, and human geographers.”[ CITATION Reu15 \l 1033 ] This speaks volumes to the amount of help from all around the world that is needed to face the threat of a dying world. We need to bring in minds from all areas across the board and start developing and helping implement change within our institutions to help teach environmentally healthy habits at a young age.

While people mull over the possibility of climate change being real, they aren’t taking into consideration the major effects their daily habits are making on the world. Even if we look at a long list of facts about what we do, how do we change them? I purpose that we really need to look at the daily life of an everyday person and see what modifications can be made. The biggest hurdle is how to implicate these changes when sometimes they are less convenient? “ The trick to getting rid of unhealthy habits is to stop justifying our poor choices and rewrite the script so we default to where we want to be.” [ CITATION Ter16 \l 1033 ] Like Goetz states, we need to stop justifying bad habits because they are not convent for us. “Adults keep saying we owe it to the young people, to give them hope, but I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic . I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is. ” Is a quote from a 17-year-old activist, Greta Thunberg. She is right, we need to address climate change as if it is the next pending war, because right now, that is exactly what it is. We need to start changing the minds of humans from one of possibility to one of action. In order to do this, we need to start the change within our natural social roles. As parents we need to start teaching our children about how to help prevent climate change, as government officials we need to start pushing laws to help save our future, as human beings we need to care about the world we live in. I leave you with this pending question, How can we change minds about the most critical war we, the human race, will ever face? References Baer, H. a. (2015). Anthropological perspectives on climate change and sustainability: . Retrieved from sustainable development:

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5834GSDR_brief_anthropology_SD _baer_reuter_rev.pdf Berardelli, J. (2020, 02 27). 10 common myths about climate change — and what science really says . Retrieved from CBS news: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-myths-what- science-really-says/ EPA. (2021, 05 12). Climate Change Indicators: Weather and Climate . Retrieved from EPA: https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/weather-climate Goetz, T. (2016, 07 14). How to Change Unhealthy Habits . Retrieved from Psycology today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/renaissance-woman/201607/how-change- unhealthy-habits Higgins, P. (2019, 12). Options to Reduce the Consequences of Climate Change. Retrieved from American Meterolgical Society: https://www.ametsoc.org/ams/assets/File/Climate%20Change %20Options.pdf Janet Swim, S. C. (2011, 06). APA . Retrieved from American Psychological Association: https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/amp-66-4-251.pdf Newman, K. (2019, 12 27). Unforgettable U.S. Natural Disasters of the 2010s . Retrieved from USA news: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/slideshows/the-10-most-unforgettable-us-natural- disasters-of-the-past-decade

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help

SCS 200 week 4

Related Documents